A place for us to share with the world what goes on here - warts and all, and to fantasize about someday really understanding what it means to be "self-sufficient"...

Sunday, September 24, 2006

Chicken Show, Show Chickens

Well, we've added two more to Madison's flock, but these two are "birds of a different feather" - they're show birds.

Stenson and Buff are Buff Brahma Bantams. These two are what is considered "show quality", and should give her plenty of show quality chicks for competition and sale. I know, I said no more bantams on the farm, since they aren't pulling their weight with eggs, but she's been wanting to get into competitive poultry, and they were beautiful and sooooo gentle...

We got them at the Eastern New York State Poulty show at the Cobleskill Fairgrounds today. What an interesting experience! It was our first "real" poultry show, and we went as spectators, not competitors (next year!) This was a very strange mix of chic and shabby. The sport definitely seems to be dominated by older men, but there's a little bit of everyone...and the ones in the beat up old Ford held together with baling twine spared nothing for their birds who were pristine and pampered, and the guy with the fancy cowboy hat and boots had ratty birds shoved into cages that hadn't been cleaned in weeks - so there was the whole spectrum.

Inside in the judging area, it was dominated (80%) by bantams. A disappointment for me, since I favor the standards, but interesting none the less. Not as wide a variety of breeds as I might have expected. If Blueberry is still around next Fall, he will definitely be an entry - there was only one other Splash Cochin, and he could have beaten him hands down. Now to see if we can find him a girlfriend....there's a tailgate sale next weekend....so we'll see!